During my time at West Point, I learned that good leaders own their mistakes. They don’t deflect blame. They don’t mislead the people they serve. They step up, take responsibility, and work to make it right.
That’s not what we’re seeing from Idaho’s majority party right now.
Let’s be honest: Idaho is facing a self-inflicted budget crisis. The rhetoric you’ll hear from the majority is that we have a “spending problem.” That’s simply not true. What we have is a revenue problem—and it’s one they created. Just nine months ago, Idaho was told we had a $345 million surplus. Now we’re facing a projected $555 million deficit in 2027, which could balloon to as much as $1 billion. How do you go from record surpluses to historic deficits in less than a year? It wasn’t because of a recession. It wasn’t because of emergencies. It’s because of five straight years of reckless tax cuts and fiscal mismanagement.
The Idaho Legislature has cut income taxes by a staggering $4.5 billion over the last five years—$450 million in just the last year alone. They did it while creating a $50 million private school voucher program with zero accountability. These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are decisions that pull funding away from your child’s classroom, your neighbor’s healthcare, and the roads and bridges we all use.
Who benefits from these tax cuts? It’s not working Idahoans. The winners are corporations and households earning over $500,000 per year. And who pays the price? You do. Through cuts to public services, overcrowded classrooms, and local tax hikes forced on communities trying to fill the gaps left behind.
The majority party says the shortfall is no big deal. They say they’ll find a way to “balance the budget.” But I’ve seen this movie before.
Back in 2009, I served in the Legislature during the Great Recession. We faced empty coffers then, too. We made deep cuts—to education, healthcare and public safety. They were brutal. Idahoans lost jobs, health insurance, and opportunity. And even after the crisis passed, it took us more than a decade to crawl out of that hole.
But here’s the difference: That was a national crisis. We did this one to ourselves.
And this time, there’s no federal relief coming to bail us out.
Why is the majority party down playing this crisis? Because if they acknowledge the severity of the problem, they also have to admit they caused it — and that they were warned. We cannot
pretend this is normal or acceptable. Because if the majority acknowledges the severity of the problem, they’d also have to admit they caused it—and that they were warned.
Last year, even Governor Little said we could not afford a $450 million tax cut. The minority party said the same. We were right then. We’re right now.
So what can we do?
We can start with common sense:
- Use one-third of Idaho’s $1.7 billion in rainy-day funds. That alone provides $567 million in relief.
- Eliminate the $50 million voucher program, which sends public dollars to private and religious schools without oversight and deprives our public schools of much needed funding.
- Place a trigger on the most recent tax cut, allowing it to take place only when we can afford it. These steps would immediately close over $555 million of the projected deficit until revenues recover. That’s not partisan gamesmanship. That’s responsible budgeting. That’s stewardship.
Unfortunately, instead of correcting course, the majority seems ready to repeat the mistakes of the past. They’re talking about cuts to Medicaid, public schools, road maintenance, and public safety. That’s not governing—it’s gambling with Idaho’s future.
The truth is, Idaho families want functional schools, safe roads, access to healthcare, and economic opportunity. That’s what our budget should reflect. But the majority is more interested in ideological pursuits than in managing our state’s finances responsibly.
We can’t allow that to continue.
As your senator, I’ll keep fighting for a budget that puts working families first. I’ll keep demanding accountability. And I’ll keep telling you the truth—because you deserve straight talk and honest leadership.
Let’s learn from the past and lead with wisdom, not wishful thinking. Idaho deserves better. And we can do better—together.